


Sing Me A Lullaby

by mikeythemage



Series: Ghost Bois Inc. Universe [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Acceptance, Angst and Tragedy, But then Wilbur snaps out of it, F/M, Floris | Fundy Angst, Gen, Ghost Wilbur Soot, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Historical Inaccuracy, I Made Myself Cry, Medieval, Monarchy, Niki is a Great Mother, Period-Typical Sexism, Public Execution, Transphobia for a lil bit, Wilbur Says Fuck Sexism, Wilbur Soot Angst, Wilbur Soot Says Trans Rights, Wilbur Soot is Not Okay, Wilbur Soot-centric, Wilbur is a bard, Wilbur stands up for what he believes in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:20:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28739397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikeythemage/pseuds/mikeythemage
Summary: The platform beneath him opens.He chokes.alternatively; wilbur's backstory.
Relationships: Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, Niki | Nihachu & Floris | Fundy, Niki | Nihachu/Wilbur Soot
Series: Ghost Bois Inc. Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106696
Comments: 7
Kudos: 290





	Sing Me A Lullaby

Wilbur Soot would say he was the best Bard in the country, if he were allowed to boast. After all, not everyone gets to perform for the King and his Royal Court. It was good money, too, for someone of his social standing providing for his wife, Niki, and his daughter, Florence. He was proud of his work, of his music, and he was glad that he was getting recognition for it from such an influential party.

The king... liked him? He'd said that Wilbur's ideals of sticking up for what he believed in were 'admirable' once or twice, and obviously enjoyed his music enough to keep hiring him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the second the king found him a nuisance that he would be out the door.

He couldn't have been more right.

It had been a usual day, one like any other, and Wilbur was playing music for the court in his corner as they laughed with on another. Their usual banter, jokes about the lower class that made Wilbur's skin itch but that he never commented on for the sake of his own hide. It was a usual day, really. Except the king had made a comment about Niki, and Wilbur wouldn't let that slide.

He can't even remember what the comment was, no matter how hard he tries. It was something along the lines of peasant women being 'easy' and that they'd 'bend over at the mere sight of a noble man' and how 'the bards wife would leave him for one of us in a second', and it was enough to put Wilbur into a fit of blind fury. Spouting off about how disrespectful it is to say such things about his own subjects, how Niki and the other women that he knows are more respectable than he or his court are. He even remembers going so far as to call them all a group of 'right skamelars'.

Needless to say they didn't take it well.

He was scheduled to be hanged in the town square the following morning.

Niki practically broke down at the news. Alternating between yelling at him for being such an idiot, and crying for the loss soon to come. She said she didn't want to talk to him for the rest of the night, before quickly changing her mind and saying that she was going to wake Florence and the three of them were spending the night together. Florence, barely nine years old at the time, was confused at having been woken up from sleep but was happy to talk with her parents.

It was nice. Sitting by the candle light and talking as a family, the cool night air chilling them enough to make the huddle closer for warmth. Wilbur isn't sure when it happened, but Niki and Florence fell asleep. He smiled, laying them down in Florence's bed before sitting out on the porch and waiting for the sun to rise on his final hours. A group of knights show up at his doorstep just before mid-morning, and Wilbur does nothing but stand and go willingly.

The man supervising the event is making some kind of speech. Wilbur is too busy thinking about how he got here to pay attention. He's sure that they're making an example of him. Something about this being what happens when you disrespect the king. He doesn't really care. He's thinking about Niki. And Florence. And how his own lapse in judgement is going to leave them alone with no way to provide for themselves unless Niki remarries. Wilbur knows Niki, though. She wouldn't remarry if it would save the world.

Florence wouldn't have any idea where he went. Wilbur can't help but be a little glad about that. He'd rather Florence grow up blissfully ignorant than-

"Dad!"

Oh no.

"Florence, please, come back!"

Oh _no_.

He opens his eyes, looking up to see Florence standing at the edge of the platform, tears streaming down her eyes as Niki races to get to her. "Dad! What are you doing!"

"Florence," Niki pleads, "we need to go home!"

Wilbur watches as Niki desperately tries to pry Florence away, only for her to thrash out of Niki's hold and keep crying for him. "Florence, listen to your mother." the man supervising the event puts his hand on the latch for the platform underneath him.

"No! What's going on!"

"Florence, please!"

"Florence-" The platform opens beneath him.

He chokes.

His eyes open to the sound of screaming. He's still on the platform, standing there. But... that's not right. He saw the latch get pulled. He felt the weight of his body being hung by the noose, felt the air leave his lungs. He's dead. He knows he is.

So why is he watching Florence break down on the ground in front of him while Niki tries to drag her back home. Why can he see her reaching out to him, face contorted with tears. Why can he still see _anything_. He looks down. That's... him. Hanging there with his arms limp at his sides. Noose tight around his neck, eyes open wide and void of life. He looks pale, paler than usual, and he doesn't understand.

He doesn't understand why he's still here. _Why_ is he still here?

Florence's screams reach him again as Niki finally gets a solid grasp on her and carries her back home, desperately trying to calm her down. He stares at his hanging body for a while. Taking in all of the details of his face. The cracked lips, eye bags, literal dead stare. It's... haunting, even at twenty five. And Florence just saw it at nine. Fuck.

He races after Niki, following the sound of his daughters sobs. He can't stand that noise. It grates on his ears, breaking his heart.

He isn't sure how long he stands there, watching Niki try and stop the tears flowing from Florence's eyes. He isn't sure how many days it is before Florence speaks again. He isn't sure how many weeks it is until Niki smiles again. He isn't sure how many months it is until they even bother to acknowledge the absence of his physical presence.

It's Florence's tenth birthday when she decides that she needs to take his place providing for the family. Niki, of course, doesn't know how Florence is supposed to do that, and asks how that's going to work out in her usual prodding voice. One that you know means you're being questioned, but still isn't threatening. It's a plan that Wilbur thinks he probably could have come up with, which Niki voices for him, and that makes Florence smile.

It's a simple plan, really. One they pull off flawlessly. They fake Florence's death, cut her hair, and have her come to stay with Niki as Wilbur's 'cousin' to help her cope with the grief. When Niki asked what she's supposed to call Florence now, Florence says Fundy.

Wilbur likes that name. Niki tells Fundy that he would have.

Fundy ends up getting a job with the local blacksmith. It starts out small, just fetching tools and metals, but she eventually makes her way up to apprentice, and then she's producing swords in the forge at a rate quick as lighting. Wilbur can't say he feels anything but proud, and he wishes with all his heart he could tell her that. Wishes he could say that he was watching over her. Wishes he could hug her one more time. He's glad that Niki does all of it for him.

"Mum, we should talk." Fundy says one day, fourteen now, hands resting on the table as Niki places down a plate of some kind of mush in front of her. One thing Wilbur does _not_ miss about being alive. Having to eat the tasteless food that people of his social standing have to eat.

"What is it, Fundy?" She asks, pulling hair back into a bun before sitting at the table. Fundy is shaking, hands clasped together, and Niki immediately looks worried. "Hun, what's wrong?"

Fundy takes in a deep breath, "I think... that I want to be... a boy." she mumbles. Niki blinks, and Wilbur thinks he misheard her. "I'm sorry."

It's quiet for a little, Niki seems to be processing the information as Fundy begins to cry as inconspicuously as she can. Wilbur is almost certain that Niki is going to tell her to stop being ridiculous, that she's just gotten too into her role as Wilbur's cousin from far off like he would have if he were still alive, but instead she smiles and reaches a hand out to Fundy's.

"It's alright, son." she whispers, and Fundy breaks down into sobs. Clinging to Niki's shoulder as she rubs her back for comfort.

Wilbur wants to scream. Wants to tell Niki that she's wrong. That it _isn't_ okay, and that Fundy - _Florence_ \- is their _daughter._ He wants to be there to talk some sense into them, both of them, but he isn't. He's dead. He's been dead for five years, lurking around them and watching them live on. Standing in the shadows and wishing he were back with them. Wishing he could reach out and touch them one last time.

For the first time since he died, Wilbur leaves their side.

He's barely gone for two months. No matter how angry he is at Niki and Fundy, he can't make himself stay away from them. Each night he sat staring at the stars, watching the sun rise, thinking of them. Their laughter, what they're talking about, what they did that day. Everything revolves around them. He sits in trees, thinking of Fundy's confession. Could he accept that? His only child being something they weren't born to be? His little girl being a young man? Would Fundy really be happy like that?

Niki seemed to accept it without a second thought, so why was he so caught up with it? What was the issue that seemed to run so deeply within him? He loves Fundy unconditionally. This shouldn't change that. It shouldn't. Fundy will always be Fundy, no matter what. Fundy will always be the one that scared Niki so bad when they were four that she nearly flattened them. Fundy will always be the one that stayed up however late it took for Wilbur to come home to give him a goodnight hug. Fundy will always be the kid that ran to him at his own hanging, demanding to know what was going on and refusing to leave.

Fundy will always be Fundy, because Wilbur loves him.

Wilbur goes home to find Fundy happier than he's seen him in years. Grin wider than a river, eyes bright and sparkling. He looks so much like Wilbur, that it's almost frightening. The wild look in his eyes, the beaming positivity. Wilbur isn't sure how he'd never seen it sooner. He's glad he finally did.

Niki gets sick. They aren't sure with what, they just know that it's incredibly _incredibly_ bad. The doctor says that she wont make it. Wilbur is... torn. He doesn't know whether to feel sorrow, or excitement. On one hand, he isn't sure he could handle Niki dying and leaving Fundy on his own. On the other, being able to see and speak to Niki again is something he's wanted for so long now. He wants to hug her, to feel her hands running through his hair, to sing her that song she always loved (a lullaby he made specifically for Fundy).

Fundy takes the news, processes it, and then throws himself so deep into his work that Wilbur isn't sure he even eats. He wakes up, tells Niki goodmorning and that he loves her, and then he's out the door for the next fifteen hours before he's back and goes to sleep and the cycle repeats itself again. Every day, Wilbur sits at Niki's bedside, watching he sleep and ramble to herself. Eventually she starts to talk to him, saying that she knows he's there listening to her and how she wishes he could have been there to see what their son has grown into. Sometimes Wilbur thinks she stops breathing, and those are the times he thinks he might die a second death out of pure worry.

There's never much spoken between the two members left of the Soot family these days. Just quiet 'see you laters' and 'goodmornings' and 'goodnights'. It makes the house feel even smaller than it actually is.

All the money that Fundy makes from work goes into doctor's visit in desperate attempts to help Niki feel better. She doesn't make it.

Fundy loses himself even more in his work. Wilbur never sees him in the house anymore, having migrated himself to the blacksmiths just to keep an eye on him. It's ruthless, how little he seems to care for his own well-being now that both his parents are gone. How he throws all caution to the wind and seems to welcome danger with open arms. How he snaps at anyone who even tries to hint that he go home and rest.

He looks exhausted, more and more so with each passing day, turning practically to skin and bone from malnourishment. He can barely walk, a month after Niki is gone.

And then so is he. At the ripe age of sixteen, Fundy quite literally worked himself to death.

Wilbur, for the first time since Fundy was born, cries.

"Hey, Wil?" Tommy asks, leaning back in his chair. Tubbo is asleep on Tommy's bed while Schlatt hovers over him waiting for him to wake up for a quick scare, Ranboo is rummaging around in the closet for... something as Techno tries to describe the general shape of what they're looking for (ironic, considering he's blind).

Wilbur opens an eye, glancing over to the teen as he idly strums his guitar, "Yeah, Tommy?"

"Did you ever have a kid?"

Wilbur stops moving his fingers over the strings. He thinks back to Fundy. His spitting image, and the one who did his absolute best to provide for the family once Wilbur himself was gone. Who was so unapologetically himself. Who loved with his entire being. He thinks about him, and he smiles.

"Yeah." he says fondly, "You two would have liked each other."

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone:
> 
> Wilbur:  
> 
> 
> But for real !!! The way Wilbur just unapologetically says Trans Rights,,,,,, Mr. Wilbur Soot Sir here is my soul on a platter thank you :)
> 
> Sorry this is so short, by the way! But this was the general stuff you need to know for Wil's backstory. I'll go more into detail about stuff farther before the death (like little Fundy interactions, and how Wil and Niki met) in later fics, promise, but I gotta get all of the backstories out of the way first!
> 
> p.s wilbur soot stop being transition goals i BEG you


End file.
